Let it snow... NOT!

Friday, 12-18 and Sunday 12-20 we have had huge winter storms. Friday we got around 12 inches, and today we have another 12 or so. We had a break on Saturday - the roads were clear enough to go to the store, but then we got hammered again on Sunday.

Here is a picture of the snow on our back deck, looking towards the driveway and the car. I love how the snow stacks up on the railing.
We swept the car off this morning to go to church, so it doesn't look too bad. But notice the snow stacked up against the fence. When we run the snow blower, the only place to put the snow is against the fence along the house. We've had trouble with the fence blowing over in the wind lately, but I think with all the snow, it's going to be pretty stable this winter.
	Our pine tree in the back yard is covered - it's so pretty, as long as you don't have to go outside!
	We keep the BBQ grill on the back deck. Here's a shot of how the snow builds up on it. Guess I won't be doing any grilling for a while.

We had a wonderful Christmas program this morning. It might be that we had to sacrifice a bit to get there today, as the roads were very bad, but there was a sweet spirit there. We had lots of wonderful music and a couple of especially thought-provoking speakers.

Christmas Concert

December 12th and 13th were the annual Christmas concerts with the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. Here is a picture of me ready to go to the Saturday concert. These concerts are a mixture of classical and pops music, along with a wonderful soloist and a hand bell choir.



Robert is all decked out to go to the ward party in his snazzy Christmas tie.



After the concert we finally had time to get our tree decorated.

Thanksgiving 2008

I'm finally getting around to posting our pictures from Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with Dan, Karen, Jared and Sean, in Hamilton, NY.

Hamilton is about a 5 hour drive from Boston. We were going to leave around 10 on Wednesday, but we actually didn't hit the road until 12:30. We had heavy traffic until Sturbrige, along 95, but then from Sturbridge on it wasn't bad. We left Utica in the dark and had to navigate the back roads to Hamilton in the dark. The roads are a combination of rolling hills and curves, which made driving exciting.

This is the dinning room table all set and ready for diinner

We served up the food in the kitchen. We had traditional turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy and lots of other good things to eat.

Dan's friends had given them a huge blue hubbard squash. Sean and Dan broke it apart by throwing it on the ground, and then we scooped out the seeds and cooked the flesh. Here's a picture of Sean getting the seeds ready for toasting.

Here's a picture of Dan, Karen and Jared.

Jared is three years old and lots of fun. His favorite toys are cars and trucks, and his favorite movie is "Cars." Uncle Sean was a great hit because he has a movie preview on his BlackBerry of a car racing movie, which he let Jared watch to his heart's content.

Jared is playing with Uncle Sean's phone, while Dan and Sean pose for the camera.

This is a shot of Dan and Karen's front door. They live in a duplex that is an old house in Hamilton, with a deep back yard.

This house is located across the street. I fell in love with it - notice the beautiful stone work.

Dan and Karen have a flower arrangement on their piano, which looks like it is growing out of the back of my head in this picture. I haven't taken to wearing hats or feathers yet.

We are especially thankful for all of our family and friends at this time of year. We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving.